1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a voice bulletin board apparatus and a method for controlling the same, and more particularly to a voice bulletin board apparatus and method for improving an authentication procedure needed for the voice bulletin board apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A voice bulletin board apparatus has been used to record/reproduce voice messages, and has been widely applied to the Internet and mobile phones.
An authentication procedure for authenticating a user who can use a bulletin board must be performed to use the aforementioned voice bulletin board apparatus. The voice bulletin board apparatus requires a log-in system, which receives menu information for authenticating the identity of a user who records/reproduces a voice message and identity information (i.e., personal information) of a voice recorder user or voice receiver user, and performs user authentication using the received information.
In the case of recording the voice message, the voice bulletin board apparatus must receive identify information (e.g., name, and password, etc.) of the recorder user from a user interface and must verify the received identity information. Also, even in the case where the receiver user of the voice message desires to reproduce the received voice message, the voice bulletin board apparatus must receive identity information of the receiver user from such a user interface and must verify the received identity information, resulting in greater inconvenience of the user. Therefore, a method for simplifying the aforementioned complicated user authentication procedure is required to reduce inconvenience of the users.
Although a voice message transmitted to the receiver user has been previously recorded, the receiver user cannot immediately hear the voice message, and cannot hear the voice message before manually recognizing the presence of the voice message. In this way, the receiver user must manually find only his or her voice messages from a plurality of recorded voice messages in order to hear desired voice messages, resulting in greater inconvenience of the user.
Furthermore, there is no method for controlling reproduction of the voice message before a receiver user selected by a recorder user directly hears the voice message recorded in the voice bulletin board, such that the conventional voice bulletin board apparatus has a disadvantage in that the receiver user cannot actively and efficiently receive the voice message.